^UARrZ 

FROM THE 

UPLANDS 



PUBLISHED BY THE 
ANTI-PESSIMI ST 
SOCIETY 1905 

PiermoDt, N. Y. 






Iwo Oapies jtewivoo 



JOfV 



copy B. 







DEDICATED 

TO THE 

AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY 



COPYRIGHTED TSOS 
BY ANTI-PESSIMIST SOCIETY 



^ARTZ from the UPLANDS 

Who Say? "All songs have been sung; 
All tales have been tolrl ; 
Live tongues are stlll'd — 
Worn smooth by precedent ! " 

In the fullness of the soul 
There lives— strong bound- 
Only to be unloos'd by greater 

deed and action ; 
An unfathomable wealth 
From which to draw forever— 
Never to be wholly used. 

Is it for you 

To stand at the bier of the dead 

past 
Mute — to consent, that : 
"All! has been sung and writ"? 

No! Insistingly, Persistently beat 
loud upon the temple door— steeled 
well to hear the mock and din and 
laughter and deriding, doubting 
shouts of those within, 
That you may full awake the throng- 
without — 
Those who sleep, work, hope and 
pray. 



You must proclaim again, again, 

This Truth ! 

The multitude at last will stand 

aghast, amazed, ashamed ; 
Thj"^ liberty deny, 
Yea, crucify. 

To them : — What is, is ; and what is, 
is to remain unchanged forever. 

To learn the lesson, to equip and 
grade thy purging tire ; 

Go forth to some unfrequented 
spot 

And reason with thyself, compar- 
ing notes with Nature. 

See it. Feel it. Hear it. 
The all-prevailing, pervading, constant, 
ever changing. From Winter's 
silence, breathing, sighing, 
sleeping, creeping on to Spring 
with sap, with slioot, with bud 
and flower, hour on hour play- 
ing, plying gentleness and 
power for Summer's rest to 
temper strength for birth in 
Autumn, with crowning bril- 
liancy and rich rewards un- 
taxed to bird, to beast, to Insect 
and to man, gift on gift for full 
contentment, sustenance and 
labor. 

From this you will accumulate a 
store so full, 



That everj' thoiight's a prayer ; 

The simplest acts of things are niiracles- 

The whole a revelation, 

To guide thy way and being. 

Kill not, dissect not, nor rend or tear, 
But see and feel and hear. 

The earth, the air and sea abound 
With righteous living creatures, 
Intent upon some full purpose ; — 
Aside from man's estate, 
Aside from his designing selfishness, 
intensely useless g r a s p i n g; s, de- 
struction, purposeless desire, 
For his good use and keeping-. 
The forest, field and sea 
And all that lies beneath. 



But if to be a "Bard Sublime ? "— 

A prater. 

Aspiring to soar 'midst lofty peaks 
on painted scenes ; to catch with musty 
mystery ; with empty schemes of praise; 
with sheens of ai'tificial lightr-spread 
o'er this prolonged night and sleep of 
letters; or with palsied moonbeams 
that miniature the day and blight 
tart speech and full-ripe reason ; 

To buoy vanity ; 

To bid for foolish charlatan's esteem, 

To live apart at ease and shirk, 



Good hard holy healthy work ; 
To mingle not with clean mag- 
netic dirt, 
With healing, building sunshine, 
air and rain. — 
Then be a heralder of "New Thought" 
Cite from thy store : 
Great Deeds 

And haughty interminglings ; 
Praise, to have a share ; 
Valor, in which words w^in ; 
Chastisement, which you do not 

feel; 
Abnegation, with no self-denial. 

Whatever thy saying, 
Mark you full well 
That all such machinations 
Must and will be counted less 
Than Brawn-Studies in great 
Nature's realm. 

If swept away from Nature's 

gentle sway 
Too weak to rise and understand 
Thy full purpose, and the coming 

day :— 
Then feed, feed on thy kind and 

and kith and kin 
Plunge in, into the maelstrom ; 
Amid'st the deaf 'ning roar. 



Swim 'midst molten masses, 
Breast cataracts of seething-, living 

action. 
Tell of harnessing of power, 
Of screech and scream, 
Of whirr of av heels ; 
Of lightning's use and speed ; 
Of clank and bang and whisp and 

twirl of rasp and plane and drill 

on rock and wood and metal. 
For therein lies a ripe, rich, unwrit 

story ; 
And place the credit where the 

credit's due. 
Use freely, and without fear thy 

caustic pen. 
Ruffle, ruthlessly pursue, dog and 

undo 
Proud spirited, designing men. 

Spur the laggard. 

Jeer at that part of press which 
teems with misstatements, lies, 
Inuendos — 

Those who prod and sting ; 

Excite the very life they claim to be. 

For gain, 

For great and greater power, cir- 
culation. 



A song or story to go on, up, through 

distant ages 
Must be full told and strong with 

facts : — 

Tell of myriads of human beings. 
Crushed, dwarfed, poisoned and 

devoured, 
By the arts and manufactures ; 
Voices drown'd, subdued, smothered 

amid the din. 

Tell of the march of industry's deafen- 
ing roar affecting a nation's reason- 
ing and sealing its store of finest in- 
stincts. 

Tell of designing kings of trade 
Who, on a free man's soil .' 
So multiplied their wealth 
That all their fellow-beings 
Were their willing- slave — 
Slaves living lives in imputrid 

bodies — 
Souls seasoned with sorrows and 

blasted hopes ; 
Of endless yesterdays, 
Long looking and longing and 

looking 
For happiness, to come on some 

to-morrow. 

Tell of serfs, dumb. 

Blind and starved by gTeed ; 



Ground 'twixt its own mill-stones ; 
Prating prayers to God 
While God looks on amazed 
At supine strength 
Behind these wills and souls in- 
active. 

Bound to an unjust cause ; 
Held firm by statute and multiplying 
laws. 

Tell how they bound themselves : 
For paltry bits of food — 
For half-made clothes — 
And shacks for shelter 
For which they gave full rights to use 

Man's Acre, 
And all the treasures that lie beneath. 

Tell of rampant selfishness run 

riot; 
Of countless serfs — 
The earth's scum ; 
Floating to this free land 
To climb upon it and gorge on 

gold galore ; 
With inspirations only of eternal 

happiness in idleness ; 
Playing wanton parts ; 
Dragging in their brazened gods 

and images ; 
Feeding on rotten greed ; 



Loaded with besotted vices 

Practising stupid customs , 

Tliese, all these — 

With voice and vote, — 

To sweep aside the well devised 

purpose, 
Built by patriarchs for equil rights 

and honors. 

They came, to make a Nation of all 

nations — 
But after all, no nation, 
No man's land. 

Tell of poisoned, delayed and decayed 
food in transit. 

Tell of the settlement of nations 

differences 
By " good offices " for peace, 
With long — drawn — out, decrepit, 

verbose, empty ceremony. 

Of International Law — 
The Will of Power. 

Of nations, swearing by the "Prince 
of Peace" 

Continuing to fortify with great and 
greater guns, 

Mobilizing husbands to defeat hus- 
bandry ; 



Bedecking them with gilt without, 
Stuffing vanity and pompousness 
witliin. 

But, if you see through the roseate 

glass. 
Of swaggering optimism 
Proclaim, that : — 
"'God is working out His will'- 
Too slow perhaps 
For challengers of spotted vice ; 
For those who seek for the 
world's and the Nation's fail- 
ings, inhuman sloth, stubborn- 
ness and sin." 

Whatever thy chronicle. 

Let it not savor of a full stomach's 

satisfaction 
That feels content with ill-got gain 

derived from tricks of trade. 

Live amidst conditions on both 
sides ; 

Experience the chill and pinch 
of poverty ; 

Feel the cold steel bands about 
an undeveloped soul ; 

Want for tools and an oppor- 
tunity to do some useful chosen 
work, 

Then will you write full well. 



"Write strong thy story, 
Chronicling on golden pages ; 
Infinite views, 
To march to triumph with the 

Truth of Truths ; 
'Twill live on and up and 

through 
The distant ages. 



1-q, 




